Symantec shares slip on poor results

Misses targets

Common Topics

Symantec saw its share price slide this morning as the markets reacted to its failure to meet targets for the quarter.

For the third quarter of 2004, ended 30 December 2005, profits fell to $91m from $163.6m for the same period last year. This resulted in earnings per share of $0.22 instead of the $0.25 expected.

The security vendor's shares fell four per cent on the news.

Symantec blamed costs associated with its takeover of Veritas for the missed targets. It booked Veritas-related costs of $166m - money which would have otherwise meant Symantec exceeded Wall Street predictions.

Revenue for the period was $1.15bn, up from $695.2m.

Looking forward Symantec predicted turnover of between $1.19bn and $1.22bn. For the full financial year of 2006 Symantec predicts revenue of between $5.35bn and $5.55bn.

Data protection made up 26 per cent of total revenues, storage management was 23 per cent of business and grew nine per cent year-on-year. Enterprise security made up 21 per cent of total revenues and grew seven per cent. Service revenues made up only four per cent of business but did grow 38 per cent.